What project management software costs when you build, partner or buy SaaS
Teams comparing Jira, Asana or monday.com seat prices against self-hosting often assume the license is the cost. For OpenProject Community, Plane Community and Redmine, the software license is free, so the real comparison is total cost of ownership: hosting, migration, edition needs per user, support and internal staffing. Per-seat SaaS prices recur every month for every user. Asana lists Starter at $10.99 and Advanced at $24.99 per user per month billed annually, and monday.com lists Basic at $9, Standard at $12 and Pro at $19 per seat per month billed annually with minimum seat counts. Self-hosted paid tiers also recur: OpenProject Enterprise on-premises is priced per named user per month, with a 25-user minimum for Professional, and Plane's Pro and Business plans are shown at 6 to 8 and 13 to 15 US dollars per user per month.
Three decisions drive the comparison. The first is user count, because per-seat pricing scales linearly in SaaS and in paid self-hosted editions alike, while a Community install has no seat fee but still needs servers, backups and administration. The second is required features. Single sign-on and LDAP group synchronization usually sit in paid tiers: OpenProject lists SAML, OIDC, CAS, Kerberos and Okta with LDAP sync in Enterprise, and on self-hosted Plane, SAML and OIDC start at Pro while LDAP is an Enterprise feature. Confirm which of these your identity provider requires before you read any price as final. The third is migration scope. The OpenProject Jira Migrator is in beta and reads only Jira Data Center 10.x and 11.x, so Jira Cloud data may need a separate migration effort, which a quote should price explicitly.
Ask every bidder for a written, multi-year estimate that separates one-time costs (installation, configuration, migration, training, security testing) from recurring costs (subscriptions, hosting, backups, upgrades, support and the staff who run the platform). For self-hosted options, ask who patches Redmine or Plane, who tests upgrades, and whose hours cover on-call administration. Redmine has no paid edition, so its cost sits almost entirely in implementation, plugins and maintenance. Check the OpenProject pricing page and the Plane pricing page directly, since list prices change, and compare them against a quote built from your own user count and feature list.
Which costs you carry under each model
This table compares who pays for each cost component under an in-house build, an implementation partner, and a commercial per-seat SaaS tool. Read each row for whether the cost is one-time or recurring, and where a supplied price exists, the source is named in the cell. The main takeaway is that open-source software removes the license line but not hosting, upgrades, support or staff time.
| Cost component | In-house build | Implementation partner | Per-seat SaaS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software license | Free for OpenProject Community, Redmine (GPL v2) and Plane Community (AGPL-3.0); paid editions need a quote or published tiers | Same open-source license; partner fees are separate from software | Recurring per-user subscription; Asana Starter at $10.99 and Advanced at $24.99 per user per month billed annually (Asana pricing page) |
| Enterprise edition or seat fees | Recurring if you buy OpenProject Enterprise (Basic at 5.95 euros per named user per month, 25-user minimum) or Plane Pro or Business; confirm current tiers | Recurring, paid to the vendor; partner helps size seats and procurement | Recurring; monday.com Basic at $9 to Pro at $19 per seat per month billed annually with minimum seat counts (monday.com pricing page) |
| Hosting and infrastructure | Recurring: servers or cloud accounts, PostgreSQL, Redis or Valkey, object storage, backups | Recurring, billed to your cloud or data center; partner may design and run it under a written scope | Usually included in the subscription; confirm data residency and backup options |
| Implementation and configuration | One-time, paid through internal staff time for installation, SSO, workflows and templates | One-time, fixed-scope fee agreed in writing before work starts; request a quote from the scope | One-time setup is largely internal; vendor onboarding services are usually quoted separately |
| Migration from Jira or Asana | One-time staff effort; OpenProject's Jira Migrator covers only Jira Data Center 10.x and 11.x and is beta, and Redmine's third-party Jira scripts are unsupported | One-time fee; confirm importer coverage for your Jira edition before quoting | Export and import effort is largely internal; confirm which history, attachments and permissions carry over |
| Upgrades and patching | Recurring internal effort; Redmine upgrades require database backup, plugin migration and restart steps | Recurring if contracted under a retainer; otherwise quoted per upgrade | Included in subscription; no internal patching of the application |
| Support | Community support is free but has no response commitment; paid vendor support depends on edition | Recurring retainer if contracted; ask for response times in writing | Recurring, bundled into the plan tier; confirm support levels for your tier |
| Internal staff time | Recurring: administrators, a product owner and users who maintain configuration, plugins and access | Lower but not zero: an internal owner is still needed for decisions and acceptance | Lower administration load, but licensing reviews, seat management and admin roles still need an owner |
What moves project management cost up or down
Licence fees are rarely the largest line in a self-hosted project management budget. The drivers below set how many people pay for paid tiers, which edition you must buy, how much migration work you carry, and how much hosting and upgrade effort recurs after launch.
Active users and seat tiers
Per-seat SaaS pricing scales with every named user, while OpenProject Enterprise on-premises is priced per named user per month with minimum seat counts at each tier. Count active users, not licensed accounts, because stale accounts still take seats in some models. Ask the vendor how seats are counted, whether guests and viewers are charged, and what happens when you cross a tier boundary mid-year.
Edition needed for SSO and LDAP
Single sign-on and directory sync often sit outside the free edition. In OpenProject, SAML, OIDC, CAS, Kerberos and Okta single sign-on, LDAP group synchronization and custom branding are Enterprise features. On self-hosted Plane, SAML and OIDC start at Pro, while LDAP and API-enabled audit logs are Enterprise features. Confirm the edition that covers each control before you size the budget.
Jira source type and migration scope
The cost of moving history depends on where Jira runs. The OpenProject Jira Migrator reads Jira Data Center 10.x and 11.x, not Jira Cloud, and is in beta with documentation advising test setups only. Plane's Jira importer covers Jira Cloud as well as Server and Data Center. Redmine's third-party Jira scripts are neither tested nor supported, so budget for custom mapping work.
Hosting size and sizing guide
Hosting cost follows the user count in OpenProject's sizing guide: 4 cores and 4 GB RAM for up to 200 users, 8 cores and 8 GB for about 500 users, and 16 cores and 16 GB for about 1,500 users. Plane's Kubernetes setup adds PostgreSQL, Redis or Valkey, RabbitMQ and S3-compatible storage, which may be run as managed services. Ask for the sizing your user count requires and whether the database and storage are included.
Integrations with files and chat
Each integration adds configuration, identity mapping and ongoing testing. Linking work packages to documents in Nextcloud, or posting project events into chat, is usually simple to start but must be retested after each platform upgrade. Ask the partner which integrations are in the fixed scope, which are Enterprise features, and who maintains them after handover.
Upgrade cadence and support model
Release cadence sets the recurring effort. OpenProject shipped 17.7.0, 17.8.0 and 17.9.0 between August and September 2026, and Redmine 7.0.x is the only line that receives new features. Upgrades must include database backup, plugin migration and testing. Decide whether a community support path or a paid retainer will carry patching, and price that recurring work separately from the licence.
How per-user edition pricing adds up for a team
Per-user pricing looks simple until minimums and tier thresholds decide the bill. OpenProject Enterprise on-premises is priced per named user per month: Basic at 5.95 euros and Professional at 10.95 euros, both with a 25-user minimum, Premium at 15.95 euros with a 100-user minimum, and Corporate on request for 250 or more users. Illustratively, a 30-person team on Professional pays for 30 named users, but a 20-person team still pays for 25, so the minimum adds cost at the bottom of the range. Crossing 100 users moves the whole base to Premium, not only the new seats, so headcount growth can produce a step change. Confirm at purchase whether the minimum applies per instance, whether inactive or guest accounts count as named users, and whether the price is per month or annualized.
Plane works the same way with different thresholds. Its pricing page shows Pro at 6 to 8 US dollars and Business at 13 to 15 US dollars per user per month, with Enterprise Grid on request, and counts seats by users with paid roles on the self-hosted Commercial Edition. The pricing page also places SAML and OIDC on Pro and above, while LDAP and API-enabled audit logs are Enterprise features, so a team that needs directory sync may be forced up a tier even at a modest headcount. Read the range as read in October 2026, and ask the vendor which role types count toward the seat total, since guests and viewers may or may not be billed.
Asana and monday.com are priced as hosted per-seat tiers, so the cost moves with every seat and every tier step. Asana lists a free Personal plan for up to 2 users, Starter at 10.99 dollars and Advanced at 24.99 dollars per user per month billed annually. monday.com lists Basic at 9 dollars, Standard at 12 dollars and Pro at 19 dollars per seat per month billed annually, with minimum seat counts that apply to paid plans. These figures were read in October 2026 and change without notice, so the quote, not the public page, sets the number. Compare the annual totals across all tiers at your real headcount, including the minimum seat count, and separate recurring subscription fees from one-time migration and implementation effort.
When each model fits your organization
An in-house build runs a community edition such as OpenProject Community, Plane Community or Redmine on infrastructure your own team operates. The software cost is zero because Redmine is free under GPL v2 and the OpenProject Community edition is free, but the work does not disappear. Your staff own installation, the PostgreSQL database, backups, patching, upgrades, plugins and user administration. This model suits organizations with an existing platform team, strict sovereignty or air-gap rules that rule out outside access, and a tolerance for owning their own upgrade calendar.
- Staffing assumed: At least one engineer who can operate Linux, containers, PostgreSQL and backups, plus a named owner for the application.
- Good fit: Air-gapped networks where a partner cannot connect, or teams with stable, internal-only needs.
- Enterprise gaps: SAML, OIDC and LDAP group sync sit in paid tiers for OpenProject and Plane, so SSO requirements may force a licence decision anyway.
- Upgrade risk: Redmine's upgrade guide requires database and file backups, plugin migration and migration commands, which your team must run and test.
- Migration risk: Built-in Redmine importers for Trac and Mantis are obsolete, and Jira migration scripts are unsupported, so expect custom data work.
Before choosing this model, confirm who will be on call for the platform and what your recovery time expectations are.
A partner-led model pairs a supported edition with an implementation partner who plans, installs, integrates, hardens, migrates and supports the platform inside your infrastructure. The subscription or license fee buys vendor support and, for paid tiers, features like SSO and LDAP. The partner's fee covers scoped engagement work, and your team keeps operational ownership. This suits regulated organizations that want self-hosting but lack enough platform staff to run it alone, or that need a documented migration from Jira or another tool.
- Staffing assumed: A named internal product owner and a few engineers for access, identity and network work, with the partner handling most build and runbook work.
- Edition decisions: Define early whether you need SAML or OIDC, LDAP group sync or audit logs, because these map to paid tiers in OpenProject and Plane.
- Migration scope: The OpenProject Jira Migrator supports Jira Data Center 10.x and 11.x, not Jira Cloud, and is in beta, so validate source versions first.
- Recurring costs: Per-user subscription fees, hosting, and any retainer for upgrades or testing recur, while scoping and migration are usually one-time.
- Partner risk: Scope creep and unclear handover, so require written deliverables and runbooks.
Ask each partner for a written scope that names the edition, the importer version and who owns upgrades after go-live.
Commercial SaaS means the vendor hosts, patches and upgrades the work management tool, and you pay per seat. Asana lists a free Personal plan for up to 2 users, Starter at $10.99 and Advanced at $24.99 per user per month billed annually, with Enterprise by quote. monday.com lists Basic at $9, Standard at $12 and Pro at $19 per seat per month billed annually, with minimum seat counts. This model minimizes platform staffing and gets teams running quickly, which suits organizations without regulated hosting constraints or with a cloud-first policy.
- Staffing assumed: Administrators for tenant settings and user lifecycle, with no need for infrastructure engineers.
- Recurring cost: Seat fees recur and grow with headcount, and enterprise tiers are quoted, so model growth before signing.
- Data location: Confirm where project data, attachments and audit logs are stored and who can access them, which matters for sovereignty and sector rules.
- Exit risk: Export formats, API limits and migration out of SaaS can be costly, so test the exit before committing.
- Vendor control: You accept the vendor's upgrade calendar and change in pricing or features.
Check your data residency and audit log requirements with the vendor in writing before comparing list prices.
How to build your own project management cost estimate
This sequence turns vague price comparisons into a three-year total for each model, built from your own user counts, feature needs, hosting size and migration scope, so every figure can be checked against a written quote.
Inventory users, roles and guest access
Start by counting who will use the tool and in what role: named members, project managers, portfolio owners, administrators, read-only stakeholders and external contractors. Separate people who need paid roles from those who only view work. Vendors count seats differently, so record how many users sit in each role and how many are expected to grow over the period you are costing. This step is complete when you have a role-by-role headcount that a vendor can quote against without guessing, and when you have confirmed with each vendor how it counts guests, viewers and inactive accounts.
List required features and the edition each needs
Write down the capabilities the business cannot do without, such as Gantt charts, agile boards, time tracking, portfolio dashboards, single sign-on, LDAP group sync, custom branding or API-enabled audit logs. Then map each one to the edition that includes it. For OpenProject, the supplied pricing lists single sign-on (SAML, OIDC, CAS, Kerberos, Okta), LDAP group synchronization and custom branding as Enterprise features. For Plane, SAML and OIDC start at Pro, while LDAP and API-enabled audit logs are listed as Enterprise. Confirm each mapping in writing with the vendor. The output is a feature-to-edition matrix that shows which tier you must buy.
Size hosting from the vendor sizing guide
Use the vendor's published requirements to size infrastructure for your user count. OpenProject's sizing guide suggests 4 cores and 4 GB RAM for up to 200 users, 8 cores and 8 GB for about 500 users, and 16 cores and 16 GB for about 1,500 users. Add the supporting services each platform needs, such as PostgreSQL 16 or later for OpenProject, or PostgreSQL, Redis or Valkey, RabbitMQ and S3-compatible storage for self-hosted Plane. Decide whether each service runs in your cloud account, your data center or a managed service, and what backups and high availability you require. Ask your infrastructure team or partner to price these components at your own rates, since hosting cost is set by your environment.
Scope the Jira or Asana migration
Identify each source system, its version and its hosting model before you ask for a migration quote. The OpenProject Jira Migrator imports from Jira Data Center 10.x and 11.x, not Jira Cloud, and is in beta with documentation advising use only in test setups. Plane's Jira importer supports Jira Cloud as well as Jira Server and Data Center. Asana and Redmine migrations generally need custom work, and Redmine's built-in importers for Trac and Mantis are marked obsolete. List the projects, custom fields, workflows, attachments and history you need to keep, and state what you accept losing. The output is a written migration scope that a partner can price and test in a non-production instance first.
Price a three-year total for each model
Build one table with three columns: community or open-source self-hosting, paid self-hosted enterprise editions, and per-seat SaaS. For each column, add one-time costs (implementation, migration, SSO setup, training) and recurring costs (licenses or subscriptions, hosting, backups, upgrades, support and internal administration time). Apply your seat counts to the published per-user prices. For example, Asana lists Starter at $10.99 and Advanced at $24.99 per user per month billed annually, and monday.com lists Basic at $9, Standard at $12 and Pro at $19 per seat per month billed annually with minimum seat counts, both as read in October 2026. Multiply by seats and months, then check whether the list price includes the features you mapped in step two. Note that Redmine has no paid edition, so its cost sits entirely in hosting, services and maintenance.
Request written quotes against the same scope
Send the same scope document to each vendor and to each candidate partner: user counts by role, the feature matrix, hosting assumptions, migration source and version, and the three-year period. Ask each party to confirm in writing which items are one-time and which recur, how seats are counted, what renewal and price-change terms apply, what support tier is included, and what the upgrade process costs. Ask implementation partners how they handle fixed-scope work, testing and handover documentation. DeployOpen works from a written scope, and does not publish a price list, so the quote follows from the agreed scope. The check that closes this step is a set of quotes you can compare line by line against the table from step five.
Questions buyers ask about project management software cost
Are open-source project management tools really free to run?
The license is free, but running the platform is not. OpenProject Community is free to use, and Plane Community is licensed under AGPL-3.0 with the same feature set as the Plane Cloud Free tier. Redmine has no paid edition at all under GPL v2. What you still pay for is the server and database capacity, backups, upgrades, plugin maintenance, and the staff who keep the platform patched. Those costs recur every year, so model them alongside the license. Also check edition limits early: single sign-on, LDAP synchronization and some audit features sit in paid OpenProject Enterprise or Plane Pro and above, so a free install may not meet your identity requirements.
What does a partner engagement for project management software pay for?
A partner is paid for defined work, not for the software itself. Typical scope items include planning the architecture, installing and hardening the platform in your own cloud, data center or air-gapped network, configuring projects, roles and workflows, connecting identity through SSO or LDAP, planning data migration, documenting the setup, and handing over operations or a support retainer. DeployOpen works on fixed-scope engagements, with scope, deliverables and timelines agreed in writing before work starts, and does not publish a price list. Ask for a quote that lists each deliverable, which environments are covered, what is excluded, and whether ongoing support is a separate retainer.
How long does a project management migration take and what changes it?
The duration depends on the source system, its data volume and how much history must move, so no fixed timeline applies across cases. Migration effort rises with the number of Jira instances or projects, custom fields and workflows, attachments, and user and permission mapping. Importer coverage matters: the OpenProject Jira Migrator reads Jira Data Center 10.x and 11.x rather than Jira Cloud and is in beta, while Plane's Jira importer supports Jira Cloud as well as Jira Server and Data Center. Redmine's built-in importers for Trac and Mantis are obsolete, and third-party scripts for Jira are untested. Ask the partner to confirm the exact importer version and what data does not transfer.
What does my team need to provide for a self-hosted project tool?
Your team provides the environment and the decisions. Expect to supply cloud or data center accounts, network access, DNS and TLS certificates, a directory such as LDAP or an identity provider for SAML or OIDC, object storage and database services where your standards require them, and named owners for approvals and acceptance. Someone must also define project templates, roles, workflows and the data retention rules that apply to time and task records. Ask any partner to list these prerequisites in the quote, with the name of the person responsible for each, so that delays do not hide in the schedule.
Can our own engineers install and run an open-source project tool?
Yes, many teams do, and the vendors publish installation paths. OpenProject supports Docker-based installation, .deb and .rpm packages, and Kubernetes with Helm charts. Plane documents Docker Compose for small and mid-size teams and Kubernetes with Helm for high availability. Redmine installs on PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server and SQLite, though SQLite is not suited to multi-user production use. Doing it internally shifts cost from a partner fee to staff time, and the recurring work is the part teams underestimate: upgrades, which for Redmine means backing up, copying plugins and running migrations, security patches, backups and restore tests. Confirm that your team can own those tasks on a set schedule before deciding.
How does SaaS per-seat pricing change total cost as the team grows?
Per-seat SaaS cost scales linearly with every user you add. Published list prices show the pattern: Asana lists Starter at $10.99 and Advanced at $24.99 per user per month billed annually, monday.com lists Basic at $9, Standard at $12 and Pro at $19 per seat per month billed annually with minimum seat counts, and Plane's Business plan is shown at 13 to 15 US dollars per user per month on its pricing page. Self-hosted OpenProject Enterprise is priced per named user with minimums, at 5.95 euros for Basic, so the per-user curve differs. Model total cost for your expected headcount over several years, including guests, paid roles and any tier you need for single sign-on, and compare against a quote for hosting and support.
Which costs recur every year for a self-hosted project management platform?
Recurring costs include hosting and storage, database and backup services, enterprise license renewals where you use a paid tier, staff time for upgrades and monitoring, plugin maintenance, and any support retainer. One-time costs include the initial architecture, installation, hardening, identity integration, data migration and user training. Costs rise with user count, the number of projects and attachments, availability requirements such as high availability, and whether the environment is air-gapped. Ask for a quote that separates one-time work from annual run costs so the total cost of ownership can be compared with SaaS.
What a Jira or Asana migration adds to the bill
Migration is often the largest line item that a per-seat price comparison leaves out, and the importers available decide how much of it is paid work. The OpenProject Jira Migrator is in beta, its documentation advises using it only in test setups, and it reads Jira Data Center 10.x and 11.x only, not Jira Cloud. A team on Jira Cloud therefore cannot assume a direct import. Plane's Jira importer covers Jira Cloud as well as Jira Server and Data Center, but it is available on Plane Cloud and on the Commercial Edition, so a Community install needs a different route. Redmine's built-in importers for Trac and Mantis are marked obsolete and not working, and the third-party Jira scripts listed are described as neither tested nor supported. Confirm which Jira deployment you run before anyone compares tools.
Each limit turns into scoping work that someone must price. A partner typically needs to inventory projects, workflows, custom fields, issue types, users and attachments, then map them to the target model, test the import on a copy, and reconcile counts and history afterward. If the importer is beta or unsupported, the partner may write and validate custom transformation scripts, and that effort recurs whenever the source data changes. Ask the vendor or partner to state in writing which Jira objects transfer automatically, which are rebuilt by hand, and what history, attachments or permissions will not carry over. The same questions apply to Asana, which has no importer named in the supplied sources, so treat it as a custom export project until a tested path is confirmed.
Before you request a quote, ask for a sample migration of one representative project from your own Jira or Asana instance, with a written list of lost or changed fields. Confirm the source product and version, the target edition (a Community install cannot use the Plane Jira importer), the number of projects and attachments, and whether a dry run and rollback are included in the fixed scope. Budget for a parallel period in which both systems are read-only or synchronized, since that cost is usually absent from per-seat comparisons. These checks determine whether the migration line is a few days of configuration or a separate project.
Which recurring costs to plan for after go-live
This sequence turns the one-time build into a standing annual budget, so each recurring cost has an owner, a schedule and a check that confirms it was done. It covers releases, data and sizing, backups, plugins, identity sync and the internal staff time that holds the platform together.
Assign an owner for each release line
Name one internal platform owner and one backup, and record which product line you run. OpenProject publishes frequent point releases, such as 17.9.0 on September 30, 2026 and 17.9.2 on October 15, 2026, and Plane's Community Edition moved from v1.4.0 in July 2026 to v1.4.2 in August 2026. Redmine has three support lines: 7.0.x receives new features, bug fixes and security updates, 6.1.x receives only bug fixes and security updates, and 6.0.x receives only important security updates. Your budget line is the staff time to track these releases, and the output is a written decision on which line you run and when you apply each update. Confirm with your vendor or partner which release train your contract covers.
Schedule database and sizing reviews
Review PostgreSQL version support, required extensions and hardware against user counts at least once a year. OpenProject officially supports PostgreSQL 16 or later and requires the pg_trgm, btree_gist and unaccent extensions, and its sizing guide scales from 4 cores and 4 GB RAM for up to 200 users to 16 cores and 16 GB for about 1,500 users. Plane's self-hosted stack adds Redis or Valkey, RabbitMQ and S3-compatible storage, each of which may run on a managed service with its own charges. The check is a dated sizing record that compares current load with the sizing guide, plus a list of any services that need a license or a plan change.
Back up data before every upgrade
Take a database backup and a copy of uploaded files before each upgrade, and test a restore on a separate host. The Redmine upgrade guide calls for backing up the database and uploaded files, then copying configuration, uploads and third-party plugins to the new installation. Storage for backups, retention periods and the time to restore are recurring costs that depend on your data volume and recovery targets, so ask your partner to quote them as separate line items. The output is a restore test record for each upgrade cycle, not just a backup file.
Budget for plugin and migration rework
Each upgrade may require plugins or customizations to be retested or rebuilt. In Redmine, the upgrade procedure runs database migrations for both core and plugins, so plugins you depend on must be reviewed for each new release line. Redmine has no paid edition, so the cost of plugin maintenance sits entirely in hosting, implementation and staff time. The check is a register of every plugin, its source, its supported version and the owner who signs off on compatibility after each upgrade.
Maintain SSO and LDAP connections
Identity connections need recurring review as certificates, directory structures and group membership change. OpenProject lists SAML, OIDC, CAS, Kerberos and Okta single sign-on and LDAP group synchronization among its Enterprise features, and Plane lists SAML and OIDC from its Pro plan with LDAP at Enterprise. Confirm which edition your identity design needs, because that choice sets a recurring per-user license line. The output is a quarterly access review that shows directory sync results, certificate expiry dates and removed leavers.
Plan license renewals and seat counts
For Enterprise or Commercial editions, track seat counts against the license and the renewal date, because user growth increases the recurring fee. OpenProject Enterprise on-premises is priced per named user per month with a 25-user minimum for Professional and a 100-user minimum for Premium, and Plane's Commercial Edition counts seats by users with paid roles. Ask any vendor or partner to state the renewal terms, true-up rules and what happens to the installation if a license lapses. The check is a seat report reconciled against the invoice each renewal period.
Reserve internal staff time for operations
Someone inside the organization must triage incidents, approve changes, manage user onboarding and offboarding, and read release notes. This internal time is usually the largest recurring cost and is easy to omit from a budget. Estimate it in hours per month based on your own team's workload, since no supplied figure applies to your environment. Ask a partner whether support retainers, upgrade work and testing are priced separately, and record the agreed coverage in writing. The output is a monthly operations calendar that shows who performs each recurring task.
How audit and records requirements change the budget
Project records can fall under retention or audit obligations, and that changes what you pay for. A project tool holds task history, approvals, time entries and attached documents, so in some sectors those records are part of the evidence a regulator or auditor may ask for. The supplied rules show the kind of control that can widen scope. SEC Rule 17a-4(b)(4) requires broker-dealers to preserve communications relating to the business for not less than three years, and the HIPAA Security Rule at 45 CFR 164.312(b) requires audit controls that record and examine activity in systems containing ePHI. Neither rule names project management software directly. Your counsel and compliance team should confirm whether project data, comments or time records in your tool are in scope before you choose an edition.
The budget effect comes from three decisions: which edition exposes the logs you need, where the retained data lives, and who runs the retention. On Plane, API-enabled audit logs are listed as an Enterprise feature on the self-hosted plans, so a team that must export activity records automatically moves from the Community Edition into a paid tier with a license key and per-user seats. OpenProject's Enterprise tiers are priced per named user per month, so a large retained user base raises the recurring license line even if the tool is otherwise free. Retention also adds storage and backup cost on your own infrastructure, plus restore testing, which is an ongoing labor cost. Ask each vendor to confirm in writing which audit events are logged, how long they are kept and whether they can be exported to your SIEM, since that answer determines the edition.
DeployOpen prepares the systems, configuration and evidence that support a compliance assessment, including retention settings, backup records and access reviews. It does not issue audit reports, attestations or certifications, and independent auditors make that determination. When you request a quote, ask for audit log configuration, log export to your own store, retention periods, backup and restore testing and evidence packaging as separate line items in the written scope. That separation lets you see which costs are one-time setup and which recur each year as user counts and retention periods grow.
How DeployOpen scopes and delivers a fixed-scope project management implementation
DeployOpen plans, implements, customizes, integrates, hardens, backs up and documents self-hosted open-source platforms inside your own cloud accounts, data centers or air-gapped networks. For project management software, that means turning a build, partner or SaaS decision into a written scope with named costs, edition requirements and deliverables before any work starts.
How we scope
- Inventory current Jira, Asana or Redmine instances, projects, users and integrations before naming an edition
- Confirm which features need Enterprise licensing, such as SSO, LDAP sync or audit logs, and price them per user
- Agree the hosting target, database and object storage choices, and the upgrade cadence in writing before work starts
How we build
- Install the chosen platform in your infrastructure, using the deployment method your team already supports
- Configure work package types, workflows, roles and identity integration, then test them with a pilot group of users
- Run a dry-run import from the source system and review what history, attachments and custom fields carry over
How we hand over
- Deliver runbooks for installation, backup, restore, upgrades and plugin migration, along with the written configuration record
- Document the license, seat counts and renewal dates so procurement and finance can track recurring costs
- Walk administrators through role management, user onboarding and the steps to switch editions if seat needs change
How we support
- Available as a retainer for ongoing patching, upgrades, monitoring and administrator help after handover
- Retainers cover the version updates your chosen platform publishes, scoped and priced separately from the initial build
- Ask us to confirm response expectations, upgrade windows and included testing hours before you sign
